Interest
by BulkyCamera
Summary: He has always silently observed her, and agonized over the secrets he knew her to have. Never before had he ever tried to do anything about it, but now? He was done resisting. It was time to take action. SessXKag
1. Chapter 1

~Kagome~

I steal a glance in his direction once again, letting a small smile escape. I see him, surrounded by the usual harem, laughing, and talking with his friends animatedly, with wild gestures. I see his brother, Kami, he's breathtaking, standing stoically, but his face had a slight smirk on it. That group is the epitome of ecstasy.

I let out a small laugh. A soft laugh of exasperation. '_What are you thinking, Kagome?'_ I think to myself_. 'He doesn't even know you exist. And besides, even if he did, you don't stand a chance against _them.' I close my eyes, sighing internally. Then I stuffed my books back into my bag, and walked out the door past Them, taking care to keep her stride normal and not too fast.

I strode out gracefully, that is until one girl from His harem stuck her foot out tho trip me.

I sigh in mid fall, and rearrange my stance so I can continue walking. I don't miss a beat.

When I didn't fall, the skimpily clad girl who tripped me, stomped her foot. I turned, and gave her a pitying look, smirking slightly at the appalled expression on her face.

i don't know why the Sesshoumaru harem has it out for me, and every time they pull stunts like this, I learned how to win each time, and then I simply walk away, leaving them fuming.

~Sesshoumaru~

Her ebony locks sway gently as she walked down the corridor, bag casually slung over her shoulder.

I watch her walk away, ignoring all those annoying girls clamoring to get a hold of my arm, so they can cling to me all evening.

I smell a jumble of scents rolling off her, and number of them confuse me.

I smell faint arousal, and... defeat? It's overpowered by the putrefying stench of pain and fear, but the most prominent smell is of _blood._

I don't understand why she smells so strongly of blood, but it isn't the only thing that draws me to her. She intrigues me.

~Third person~

The same Kagome that Sesshoumaru was so intrigued by, was currently lying on her living room floor drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness.

A tall man was towering over her, from his features you could tell that he used to be good looking.

He now had a beer belly, and his features had faded with age, but he still had a prominent, straight nose, and dark eyes, that in Kagome's memory used to be soulful and warm. They weren't anymore, however. Now they were flashing with cold rage and satisfaction, as he saw his step daughter splayed across the hard, wooden floor.

"Why can't you be more like your sister?" he demanded, as he kicked her hard in the stomach.

He gasped as all the air in her lungs left her, but her mind was somewhere else.

Sesshoumaru. She only thought of Sesshoumaru.

~Kagome~

Over the years, ever since my mother's death, I've been living like this.

Every day, the same thing. The ever present taunts, the threats, the frustration... more importantly, the beatings.

I've learned to simply put my mind elsewhere when he hit my; I've become wise to his ways.

When he tries to starve me to death, I learned to store food and water in my room, along with an electric kettle. For the cup noodles. Eventually, I managed to save up, and bought a mini fridge, and hid it in my closet. I've even carved a hole in the back of the wood, and attached the plug to the socket behind it.

When he comes home drunk, and tries to stab me to death with kitchen knives, I lock myself in my room.

When he removed the lock, I tied one end of one of my old bras to the handle, and then the other end to a cluster nails I hammered into the wall just above the door. I just been upgraded to strong rope.

I've learned not to get into trouble outside school, [yes, that had been VERY painful; more so than usual] to be home on time, and to steer clear of him when he was drunk.

No friends, no boyfriends, no acquaintances. Nobody. It's only the threat of the child rights council that he even let me go to school. He doesn't want them investigating. He adores his little punching bag.

Finally, after what seemed like another eternity, dad left to get himself another bottle of Vodka. He never has beer, no. It's too mild.

Seeing him leave the room, I picked myself off the floor, and slowly dragged my numb, traitorous body to my own room. When I reached there, I tied the door shut, and plopped myself onto my makeshift bed, and sunk into not-so-peaceful oblivion, haunted by bloodied daggers, and dark shadows.

~Sesshoumaru~

I inserted the key to my apartment into the lock, and opened the door. I shrugged my blazer off, and got myself a bowl of cornflakes, and sat down at the table in my kitchen, all the while lost in thought.

'Something has to be wrong... why else would she smell like blood?'

I decided that I would investigate.


	2. Chapter 2

~Third person~

The next Monday, Sesshoumaru came to school early. He had observed her for a week, and concluded that she came to school at around six thirty am.

He decided to join her, after finding out some more about her.

He saw her emerge from her house, wearing her trademark grey hoodie, with a loose black T shirt with neon blue waves from the lower left corner, dark blue skinny jeans, with neon blue converse high tops, the same colour as the design on her T shirt, that had black swirls with yellow shadows. It looked like she had painted them herself. Quite well, he might add. Her hair was covered by the hood of her hoodie, but he could see the long bangs that almost covered her eyes, and the usual braid that hung over her shoulder.

So simple.

So beautiful.

She smelt of strawberries and water, but the smell of blood was stil prominenet. For the enth time, he felt a desperation to fing out _why_ she always smelt of blood, and to rip the cause of her pain to shreads. Tiny, unrecognisable, shreads.

He was still obsessing about ripping and shreads when he smelt the rain. He smelt it first, and then about fifteen seconds later the first drop fell. Right on her nose. She looked up, welcoming the dusty pecepitation. It began to rain more heavily then. He watched as she shrugged of her light jacket, and deposited it in her bag, then placed her bag under the reletive safety of a nearby tree.

The sleeves of the T shirt she wore under it were short. And he saw her arms exposed for the first time. They were covered in bruises. In fact, they looked like giant bruised themselves. A black and blue puddle, with cuts floating here and there.

His eyes widened, and he almost ran out to interogate her, but he suppressed to urge.

He watched her for a while more, until he couldn't take it anymore, and he turned and fled. Yes, fled.

~Kagome~

This is getting out of hand. I mean really. I haven't said two words to the gut and these bimbos lock mi in a smelly janitor's closet. Great. Just how I wanted to recuperate from several injuries that would normally need expert medical attention, stuffed between a bunch of mops, pails and brooms. Fabulous.

I resign myself to spending the night here, seeing as the janitor will only be back in the morning. I take a bag of frozen grapes out from my bag, burst it open and pop a couple of the green sweet balls into my mouth, then take my book out.

The Hunger Games. I love this book. It's reviting. I'm at the part where Katniss feeds Peeta to sleeping syrup so she can go to the feast when I hear my name being called.

"Kagome? Are you inside?" WTF? Is that... _**Sesshoumaru**_**? **I quickly compose myself, and answer. I'm not gonna make a fool of myself in the first conversation I have with the guy I've been obsessively in like with since I saw him.

"Um, yeah, I'm here." I hear a sigh.

"Just step back, I'll get you out in a minute." Yay, Sesshoumaru, my night in shining armour. Or with shining hair would be more appropriate.

A minute later, the door bursts open, just like my bag of grapes. And proceedes to hit me on the nose. I turn my head at the last second, so it hits my left temple instead. I feel the blood slowly dripping down my cheek, and I sigh. He seems surprised.

"Baka. I told you to step back." Ah, the melodious sound of his monotone voice. Joy. So amazingly emotionless. PS- that's sarcasm

"Back to where?" I can feel myself get dizy as I motion towards the non-existant space behind me. He grunts. I raise my eyebrows. Then promptly decide to sit down so I don't pas out, and press my hand to my temple in a futile attempt to staunch to blood flow. He kneels down beside me, then lifts me up without a word. I raise an eyebrow.

"Sorry, but why are you carrying me?" I know it I ask, 'What are you doing' he'll say 'Hn. I carrying you, what does it look like, ningen?' Besides, the close proximity only serves to make my blood pump faster. If my head wasnt bleeding, I would be blushing, but since the blood just flows out, I have none to spare for blushing.

"Because, _ningen_, you will collapse if you attempt to walk."

Oh. Okay. I might as well enjoy it while it lasts. Only _daddy dearest_ to look forward to anyway.

~Sesshoumaru~

I am an idiot. Why am I being such a prick? I'm in _love_ with this girl! Oh kami, help me...

XXX

A/N - okay, the next chapter is FINALLY up. I'm sorry to those of you whom I made wait, thanks for your patience!


	3. Chapter 3

~Kagome~

I wake up in a crinkly bed that feels like it's covered in paper. Then I realise that I'm in the school infirmary. Did he carry me all the way here? We were in a completely different part of the school.

...

Cool.

Hey, he's even bandaged my head. Sweet.

I see him sitting in a garrish plastic orange chair reading my book, that he had obviously fished out of my bag. He seemed engrossed, which is probably why he didn't notice that I was awake until I sat up, and even then I collapse back onto the bed before he can push me down. Uh, I hate head rushes. Damn blood.

"Are you alright?" Was it just me, or did he sound remotely concerned and vaguely normal-ish just then? Oh, Lord, save us! The Mighty Sesshoumaru has shown _emotion!_ Prepare for the apocolypse!

Instead of running and hiding from the impending doom that I felt, I grimaced and told him, "I'll live."

And he muttered a low, "You'd better."

Needless to say, I was astounded.

"How long have I been out?" I asked after a slightly tense pause.

"An hour." Oh. Thats quite a lon- shit. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. An hour? An _**hour?**_ Oh, fuck, dad's gonna freaking _mutilate___me! I have to get home, NOW!

~Sesshoumaru~

I swear, I will _never_ in my entire life understand this girl. Never.

One minute she's perfectly normal, and the next she jumps out of the bed and starts screaming for me to take her home. I am beginning to wonder if she is somehow possesed.

"Calm down, ningen! I'll give you a ride home." There. That stopped her in her tracks.

"Really?"

"Yes." She's silent for a second.

"Well, LETS GO THEN!" Ouch, my poor ears...

~Kagome~

It's dark in the house when I get back home. It doesn't seem like he's home, but I'm wary and overly silent as I creep up the stairs, just in case.

I was right to do that.

The minute I step into my room, I see a figure sprawled on my bed, a bottle of vodka clutched limply in his hand. This figure is obviously my 'beloved' daddy dearest.

Well, this is just stupendous.

I creep into the room, pick up my laptop bag, the other two Hunger Games books, and all the food I had hidded under my desk.

Thankfully, he doesn't even stir.

I ran out of the house immediately, and went over to the park in a few dozen blocks away so I could enjoy the free wi fi there. Seriously, it was soo easy hooking up to the wi fi. The network connection is fairly strong and its called belkin177189. The password is belkin. Really. It is.

Idiots. Heh.

I log in to my fanfic, dragonfable and youtube accounts, and sit ther for a loooooong time just reading, watching videos, commenting, reviewing, typing my own stories, battling Sepulchere's minions, and giggling over the mindless, cutesy, fluffy, waffley romance.

After a while of watching random bits of some anime called 'Junjou Romantic' I discovered a new love for yaoi. It's true, there's nothing like two guys in love that can melt any girl's heart. They're just sooo _**cute!**_  
>And that hot grey haired guy is <em>such<em> a sadist... I'm almost jealous of the brown haired dude with the green eyes.

Huh. I'm a maschocist too, apparently.

Wicked.

I continue with my buisness until I hear- or rather feel- Sesshoumaru's youki sneak up behiend me. I turn a kittle, so I can see him out of the corner of my eye.

"Sesshoumaru. What brings you here?" I ask. genuinly perplexed.

"I smelt you. You should be in bed. At home. Why are you _here,_ and not _there_?" He replies evenly.

"Uhh... I feel fine, and I wanted to get some fresh air." Besides, my _daddy_ is home.

"Hn. Do not lie, ningen." I feel a nerve twitching in my brow.

"Look, Sesshoumaru. Thankyou for before, I owe you for that. You don't need to worry about me, I've had wor- I'm fine. Also, last but not the least? I have a _name._ It's Kagome, incase you forgot." He raises a delicate eyebrow.

"Ningen, you are-" What exactly I was, I never did find out, for at that precise moment, my dad ambled into the park. It's past dusk now, and the sky is a light pink fading into lavender and purple, so the park's empty. Dad thinks I was alone, I'm guessing he didn't see Sesshoumaru. Though how he missed him is beyond me. I hastily shove my laptop and stuff under a bench, and stand up.

"Dad!" I greet, falsely cheerful. Sesshouraru senses it. He shoots me a look, the quizzical one with a raised eyebrow. Sheesh, even the guys _eyebrows_ are friggin perfect, I note.

"You bitch!" He yells. I wince. I motion for Sesshoumaru to please leave, and he shrugs and walks away. His youki slowly disappears, and just as it's totally gone, dad reaches me and smacks me with the back of his hand across my cheek. I fly backwords into a bench.

~Sesshoumaru~

This is my chance to find out the truth. I walk a little way away, slowly concearing my youki bit by bit so it creates the illusion of distance. I pearch myself atop a willow tree a little way away, and just as I turn around to see what happens back at the park, I see Kagome's father slap her and she collides with the side of a nearby bench. It's made of metal. And the meatllic scent I smell isn't coming from it. Kagome's left pant leg is slowly turning a sickly blackish colour, from where the blood is seeping through. I whip out of the tree instantly, but not before her father kicks her a few times in the same leg, and I hear a sickening crack just before I shove him away from her.

"Kagome? Can you hear me?" I whisper crouching beside her limp form, gently lifting her torso up so she rests against half in my arms. She doesn't respond, and I have a feeling her leg is broken, so I make a quick decision, and whip out my cellphone from my pocket, sparing a glance at the unconcious drooling man lying a few feet away.

I press speed dial one and Inuyasha picks up on the first ring.

"Nee san! I was getting soooo bored you-"

"Inuyasha, I need your help." I cut him off.

"Huh? With what?" Inuyasha hears the rare strain in my voice and askes.

"I need you to come pick me up from the park on 15 Gojinboshi street. Bring the car, and get here as fast as you can." I'm struggling a little to keep my voice calm now. Kagome's bleeding badly.

"I'll be there in a second" Inuyasha assured me, and promptly hangs up. Enough time for questions later.

I pick up Kagome and haul her gently onto my back. She's probably hit her head too, I need to get her to Izayoi quickly.

~Kagome~

I wake up in a strange place for the second time time today, and find that Sesshoumaru has rescued me yet again. My leg is stinging a lot, so I stare at it a while, wondering why when I remember my father slamming me into the bench.

"Geez, he could at least be a little original..." I mutter, and Sesshoumaru appears out of nowhere, pushing me back down onto the bed. I stare at him for a bit then ask.

"Okay. I'm officially confused. What's going on?" Sesshoumaru gives me an exhasperated expression and I blanch. Whats his problem?

"Your _'father'_ broke your left leg and gave you a severe concussion." Oh. Well, that explains a lot.

"Let me guess, you swooped in like a knight with shining hai- i mean armor and rescued me from the bad man?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"That just about sums it up, yes." He replies, smirking. I sigh.

"So, where am I?"

"My apartment."

"Figures. Okay, so when can I go home?"

"You can't."

"And why not?"

"Because. I failed to get your _'father_' arrested, and he will probably kill you if he sees you again." I can feel my face pale at his words.

"You saw? I whisper.

"...Yes. And I will not let you go back." Now, normally I would be thinking 'Let me?_ Let me?_ Who the fuck do ya think ya are, dude?' But right now I'm grateful.

"I don't wan't to go back." I whisper.

Then, he leans forward and touches the bruise on my cheek.

Oh my god.

I BROKE SESSHOUMARU!


	4. Chapter 4

~Kagome~

He just stroked my face. _Sesshoumaru, _the perpetually pissed off ice prince just _stroked_ my _face._

He..he.. did _SESSHOUMARU _just express emotions? Oh, God, it's the end of the world! Prepare for the apocalypse, people! We're all gonna die!

Apparently my expression mirrored my thoughts, coz now he's frowning and asking me if I'm afraid of him or something.

Uh, no. I'm just afraid of how you're displaying _feelings._ To _me._ _Me,_ Kagome currently broken Higurashi. But saying that would be rude, so I settle for,

"No. My leg hurts, that's all."

"I see." Do ya really?

"I shall go get you some pain killers." He says. Heh, his speech pattern is weird.

He withdraws his hand, and goes out of the room, presumably to get me some pain meds, giving me some time to survey my surroundings. Totosai jii chan always told me that ten seconds of surveying my surroundings could save my life.

So, I see a HUGE bed, which I am sitting in by the way, with really soft blankets and a plush mattress [I may just drown in here...] and about a dozen pillows. The walls are a pleasant pale teal, and there are three rows of frames. One has childish finger paintings, photographs, and the third row has embroideries. There are four in each row, all, even the finger paintings, depicting the four seasons. Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn.

It's pretty nice, actually.

Apart from the bed, the room is pretty normal. I can tell it's his, because there are photographs of his family on a polished wood desk against the opposite wall and on the bedside table, and some of his clothes are folded and kept on the computer chair in front of the little laptop table.

Really normal.

I look out the window behind me and see that I'm in quite high up. Seventh floor, maybe? And at this point, Sesshoumaru walks in, holding a tray with glass of water, a bowl of something; possibly food, and a bottle of pain killers. He sits down beside me and puts the bowl, which is revealed to contain a large amount of fried rice with yummy smelling curry, in my lap.

"Eat. You haven't eaten for nearly twenty four hours now." An entire day? That means I spent the night. Where exactly did he sleep? I'm sure this bed's big enough for the both of us... Okay, lets not go there. That roads clearly leads to tears and heartbreak judging by the creepy looking trees and crumbling pathway, so lets go the other way! Down the sunny path we go, where everything is shiny and happy!

...I hate shiny.

Moving on...

So I finish eating the the fried rice, and Sesshoumaru hands me the pain meds. I swallow them without hesitation, 'cause my arm is really killing me.

Ten minutes later, we're just sitting here. Totally silent. Staring at each other.

"So..."

"Yes?" He answers almost instantly.

"I... um..." Say something woman!

"I like the paintings on your wall!" I blurt out. Okay, that's not so bad. Look, he's even smiling.

...Oh, god, he's _smiling_.

Maybe this is the real Sesshoumaru?

"My younger sister made the finger paintings. She turns seven on June sixth." Aww, he's a doting brother! How cute.

"That's pretty close" I say. He nods.

The silence reigns again.

"It's late. You should sleep." He says finally. I open my mouth to object, but decide against it. I nod instead, drink some water, and snuggle down into the bed.

He smooths back the hair from my forehead_,_ [I'm finding it hard to get used to the drastic change in his previously polar personality] and says,

"Good night, Kagome." And then leaves.

"Wait!" I call out.

"Where are you sleeping?"

"My couch is more than comfortable, do not worry. And no, You are not to leave that bed so you cannot take the couch. Stay put." He replies, the walks out, closing the door behind him.

I stare at it for a few minutes, wondering how the Sesshoumaru harem would react if they could see me now, and with that thought I drift off to sleep.

~Sesshoumaru~

I was having a strange dream.

In the dream, Inuyasha was sitting on a huge white dog that came up to my chest, and Izayoi was wearing a traditional princess style yukata, and was combing her hair. Rin was there too, she was playing with a disgusting looking toad, and everything was in varying shades of grey. Suddenly, they all started to scream, simultaneously. Even the dog and the toad. They didn't stop what they were doing, they just screamed. They kept screaming, until I jerked awake.

Now I'm awake, and I realize the screaming is coming from my room.

KAGOME!

I run to the room, half expecting to find her father there, trying to kill her, but what I find is more disturbing.

Kagome is writhing in the bed, completely tangled in the covers, clutching her hair, screaming herself hoarse.

I try to hold her still, because she seems in danger of ripping her hair out, but she won't stop fighting me.

After about five minutes of struggling, her eyes finally snap open, but her reaction is a little different from what I had expected.

Instead of being relieved, she screams again, and slaps me in the face.

...What in the world?

"Sesshoumaru Taishou! I had no idea that you were one of those kind of guys! Taking advantage of a helpless, injured maiden, how could you?"

"I'm not trying to rape you, stupid woman! You were screaming in your sleep, and ripping your-" really long, soft, silky, smooth "-hair out by the roots!"

She stares at me for a bit.

"Oh, don't worry about that, I do it all the time. Sorry if I disturbed your beauty sleep." I scowl at her. [How incredibly mature of me. T_T]

"You had better be." I mutter, nursing my wounded ego.

"Now get out. I wanna go back to sleep." The nerve of this woman! Never the less, I stalk out of the room and return to the couch. I does take me hours to go back to sleep, even with the absence of her screams. What had she seen? What was she dreaming about?

I need Kanna.

XXX

A/N - okay, I was not at all happy with the previous ending of this chapter, and the end seemed really OOC, for both of them, so I changed it.

Thank you all for reading so far, and a special thanks to the following people -

Blackened Gem

casedeputy

princess of the western lands

AngelNguyen1

xXAngel AlliXx

lady sesshomaru-sama

sexydemongirl5000

Kagome Monia and Akuma Neko

Thanks a lot, your reviews really boosted my morale! ^_^


End file.
